British ‘Batman’ Unmasked: Turns Out, He’s The Joker

The “British Batman” has decided to reveal his identity to the world, but unfortunately, he’s not exactly the well-meaning amateur crime fighter the media made him out to be. Turns out, this Batman is more like The Joker … a practical joker, that is.

You’ll recall we covered a story a day ago about a man dressed as the DC Comics character Batman, who mysteriously brought a 27-year-old man wanted for burglary into a Bradford station to turn him in. The British Batman vanished into the night, leaving puzzled police officers with their wanted suspect, and making us all feel a bit safer.

After getting so much attention, the British Batman chose to come forward and disclose his true identity on Tuesday. He’s really a 39-year-old driver named Stan Worby.

That’s not so bad. We weren’t exactly expecting Bruce Wayne, were we? But that’s not what sucks about the story. What sucks is that the whole thing was staged.

Worby admitted that he hadn’t nabbed a criminal on the streets and brought him to justice as part of some amateur crime-fighting crusade. Rather, he simply agreed to accompany his friend (the suspect) to the station for moral support, and decided to throw on a Batman costume as a practical joke.

“Obviously it was done as a joke,” Worby told ITV’s Daybreak program. He explained that he had been to London’s Wembley Stadium earlier in the day, watching a local Bradford City team play in the English Capital One Cup soccer final, and decided to wear the Batsuit for fun. During the event, he was contacted by the suspect and agreed to take him in when he returned from London.

“Obviously he wanted to get straight down there and I wanted my bed as it was half (past) one in the morning,” Worby said.

He also said that the media was unfair to him for alleging that he wasn’t exactly in shape enough to be a superhero.

“I’ve got my full tracksuit underneath,” he explained.

So the real hero in this story is actually the suspect in question for turning himself in.

What do you think? Are you upset that the British Batman ended up being a fraud?